The British poultry industry can breathe a small sigh of relief

The good news regarding the recent outbreak of bird flu on the Norfolk/Suffolk border is that it appears to have been completely contained as no new cases have been reported in the surrounding area over the last week.

Congratulations to Defra are in order as this particular strain of the virus was seen to be highly contagious and very difficult to contain. Defra were extremely quick to act in containing the virus and it is only because poultry workers went from the first farm to surrounding farms that the virus seems to have spread at all. These workers had already moved to different workplaces before the bird flu outbreak was apparent and it was lucky that they did not infect other places or other farms outside the initial area.

While Defra are pleased that they have contained the virus they are still unable at this point in time to clearly identify where the original outbreak came from.  At present they say they have no evidence to show that the birds were initially infected by contact with people who had previously been in contact with birds from other countries where the bird flu virus is known to be active.

It is likely that the original case was brought into the farm from a wild bird however this cannot be completely confirmed.  The National Farmers Union however did say that an investigation has shown that the particular strain of virus had a 99.8 percent exact correlation to another bird flu outbreak in the Czech Republic earlier this year. 

The British poultry industry can breathe a small sigh of relief that the virus has been contained but they must not get complacent and must be extremely strict about enforcing regulation and rules all over the country if they want to keep the United Kingdom bird flu free.